


Halloween Ever After

by I_am_Best



Series: WOYtober 2016 [6]
Category: Wander Over Yonder
Genre: I do what I want, M/M, Rare Pairings, WOYtober, especially in regard to ships, there's not much halloween in this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-22
Updated: 2016-11-22
Packaged: 2018-09-01 11:51:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,497
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8623510
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/I_am_Best/pseuds/I_am_Best
Summary: Pt 1: There's finally a party where nothing horrible happens, and the one person Hater wants to be there, isn't.Pt 2: After the party, there's a lot of candy left.  A lot. And Peepers won't let Hater keep it.





	1. Butterfly Kisses

**Author's Note:**

> Meh, this is about where I hit my stride with these (and got hella sick). It's not as Halloween-y as I wanted for this last push, but even after sitting on it for ages, there's naught to be done to fix it. I've literally started posting it then reconsidering like five times. So. Here's a fic. Prompt from [here](http://dontgetusedtoit.tumblr.com/post/149854345058/woy-tober-challenge). #30: Halloween in the Skullship.

Hater screamed into the mic as Wander shredded next to him. The words didn't matter at this point, since the crowd was in such a fervor and the speakers so loud nobody could understand him anyway. Which worked for Hater, since he hadn't written much in the way of lyrics beforehand. Wander had rushed him out onto stage before he could think too much on that and back down. He'd been nervous at the start, but it had been a good call.

He head-banged, one hand throwing the horns and crackling electricity. This party was intense. And Wander swore up and down there weren't any drugs. Just lots of candy. And a lot of Watchdogs to eat it.

Wander had invited some friends, too. Normally Hater would be angry to have people he either had subjugated, run afoul of, or both, wrecking the place, but everyone was loving him and his Harbingers of Doom (feat. Lord Hater's M♥st Wanted as Wander had decided he was called). Sylvia was dressed like a knight and had a gaggle of princesses who might or might not be actual princesses and one love-struck shark man around her. Ex-villains, current villains, rulers and just random people who had nowhere else to be tonight and few excuses to dress stupid spilled out into the halls. Hater just hoped it'd be enough to lure out one specific Watchdog.

Halloween, Hater would allow, was the only common thread between him and Wander. That and a love of rock-n-roll. And good food. And fun. But besides that! He thought nobody liked Halloween as much as he did, from the cheesy kid stuff to the scary stuff to the more adult side of things, but over the course of the week-long event, Wander had met his enthusiasm every step of the way. Except when Hater had shown up to the party like the punk rocker he was in his soul, and Wander had shown up dressed like the princess Hater guessed he was in his soul to accompany Sylvia's knight. But he was tearing it up on the electric guitar, so Hater couldn't complain.

They wound down to let another, all-Watchdog band take the stage when Hater ran out of his already thin material. Hater hopped off the stage to meet his adoring fans and skimmed the crowd of Watchdogs and gathered groupies. It felt good to steal their attention from the self-proclaimed party animal himself, Emperor Awesome.

"You lookin' for someone, Hatey?" Wander asked as he offered Hater a drink.

Hater tossed the punch back and pushed Wander aside to help himself to some more. "....You know everyone, right?" He wasn't looking at Wander, but staring intently at the punch bowl.

"Not everyone, but I try."

"Do you know any girl Watchdogs with blonde hair?"

Wander mulled over this a moment, then a look of realization dawned. "You mean that Watchdog from your concert for Dominator?"

"Yeah," Hater said a little defensively. "I was just wondering, you know, if she was here. I've not seen her since the concert. Or before, come to think of it."

"She kinda is," Wander muttered into his own cup. He pulled the cup away to look at it suspiciously, before he shrugged and downed it. If he wanted to actually die, he could accept his fate of Peepers drowning him in the spiked punch and tell Hater who his fangirl had been, but Wander was pretty keen on living.

Hater was silent as he tried to figure out what Wander said, then gave up and just asked, "So you know her? D-do you think you could introduce us? I was hoping she'd come to this concert, but..."

"I could ask 'n' see, but she's not at the party. She's real, uh, shy."

"Yeah, yeah. Go do that," Hater said, shoving Wander toward the door.

As Wander passed Sylvia, he very quickly explained what was happening and begged her to keep Hater from doing anything that might hurt himself, physically or emotionally. Especially since he took to that punch like a fish took to water.

"You're asking for the impossible," Sylvia called after Wander as he wended his way through the crowd, "but I'll try."

* * *

 

"Commander Peepers!" Wander yelled as he burst into Peepers's room.

Peepers sat up from his desk, a paper glued to his face. "Wh-what? Did someone die?"

"No. Why would that be the first thing you ask?" Wander asked as he closed the door behind him. "Anyway, Hater wants me to talk to a girl for him, the only issue is he doesn't know who the girl is, an' I don't know how t' break it to him who she is without him bein' upset."

Peepers muddled through Wander's explanation until he thought he sort of had the gist of it. "What's wrong with her? Is she ugly?"

"On the contrary! She's very pretty. The only issue is she's _you_."

Peepers stared stupidly at Wander, trying to figure out what he was even talking about.

"He was askin' after that girl at his last rock show," Wander explained. "A Watchdog with blonde hair."

Peepers held up a hand to silence Wander. This would take a moment to process. Or a few. When he realized the implications, his eye widened. This was an opportunity he never could have dreamed of. His idol was showing interest in him, and there was zero doubt about Peepers's interest in Hater, but at the same time, Hater wasn't asking after _Peepers_. He wanted a girlfriend. Peepers knew himself well enough that he couldn't go through with that sort of deception.

"Tell him she died. That one of Dominator's robots killed her on the battlefield."

"Well, that's a downer. And also, a lie. Why d'ya want me t' lie to Hater? I thought you liked him?"

Peepers flushed. "I am his second in command (Captain Tim doesn't actually count). Yes, I like him. He's my leader. No, I am not willing to construct some elaborate farce worthy of daytime soaps for him. Tell him whatever version of events fits into your arbitrary moral spectrum that gets that across."

Wander looked down at his glass slippers, a frown on his face. "Oh. Okay."

* * *

 

As soon as Wander reappeared at the party, Hater excused himself from a crowd that still seemed to like him and dragged Wander to a somewhat quiet corner. "Well?"

Wander squeezed his eyes tightly shut and braced himself. "Mr. Peepers wanted me t' tell ya she died in a battle 'gainst some Dombots."

Hater was silent. Wander opened one eye. Hater's mouth was pulled into a small frown, and his eyes were shimmery with tears.

He was like a kicked kitten. Wander couldn't be a kitten kicker. "It's because he doesn't think you two should date, on accounta a conflict of interest."

"What conflict?" Hater shook Wander by the shoulders. "We can get through it!"

Wander took a deep breath and held it. He might as well start practicing for when Peepers found out. "She's your second in command."

Hater squinted at Wander like he was talking to a moron. "Captain Tim?"

"No, uh. Third in command?"

"Peepers?"

Wander nodded.

"Sure you don't mean to drop down another level or two?"

Wander shook his head.

Hater mulled on this a moment, long enough that Wander worried he was thinking of doing something rash. Possibly to Wander, since Hater hadn't let him go yet. "Hah! Peepers does like my music! And also... me? ?I mean, like-likes me? Because obviously he likes me. Duh."

"One of those is definitely true," Wander said as Hater's tongue got away from him trying to clarify. Hater looked so happy, Wander figured now was a good time to start kind of waffling the truth. He didn't have to know Peepers had only dressed up to run him down, not actually cheer him on. Wander himself had been a little put out when Sylvia had told him what they'd been doing dressed up like that. He imagined Hater's reaction would be a bit more than 'put out'.

"I'm gonna need a moment," Hater said, shoving Wander out of their corner. At least he was smiling, now.

Wander made his way back to Sylvia. "I want ya t' know before Mr. Peepers kills me, Sylvia, that I love ya, and you've been the best friend a wanderin' wanderer like me could ever ask for."

"Didn't go well?"

Wander scratched his head, trying to figure out the answer to that. He looked back to the corner, which was already empty. "I think it went well. Hater ain't put off that it's Peepers, 'n' Peepers definitely likes Hater. But he didn't want me t' tell him. But then Hatey got a little sniffley an' my poor heart couldn't take it. I crumbled."

"Not so fun when it's you on the other end of the wibbly lip, huh?"

"It was _precious_ , Sylvia," Wander said, his own lip beginning to tremble.

Sylvia suddenly smacked Wander's shoulder, sending him stumbling into her flock of princesses. He had to admire her success with the princesses as a fake knight, especially compared to Brad's lack thereof as a real one. One righted him and fixed his hat, hennin-shaped to match his outfit.

"Sorry," Sylvia said. "I just was thinking  _we should definitely spy on them_."

"Sylvia!" Wander squeaked. "That's rude 'n' intrusive. They gotta work this out on their own."

Sylvia raised an eyebrow at Wander and said nothing.

A few minutes later, they were staring down through the slates of the vent grate into Peepers's room, chins propped on their hands as they settled in for the show.

Hater was already in there, perched awkwardly on the edge of the bed. Peepers had turned his chair to face him, a disgruntled expression on his face and a pile of paperwork still needing to be dealt with behind him.

"Um. Soooo," Hater began.

"Wander told you, didn't he?" Peepers said before Hater could figure out where to go from his brilliant opening move. "Listen, sir --"

"I know you feel you have to pretend to not like my music, like you're too cool for it or whatever, but it's okay if you just wanna like.... jam one day, maybe?" Hater said, voice getting more hesitant as he rambled on. "You were pretty good on those drums."

"I -- what? Sir." Peepers stopped himself and took a deep breath. "I don't like you for your grop-awful music. I like you because you're a conqueror of worlds. The face that everyone rallies behind. And, well, you stoodupformethatonetimeanditwasreallynice."

Sylvia reached out and covered Wander's mouth as he began to squeal in excitement. However amateurish their fumbling, those two didn't beat around the bush. The movement sent a quiet, slightly worrisome groan of metal throughout the vent.

"I'm going to ignore that first part. What was that last thing you said?" Hater asked.

Peepers responded slowly, working through the words as he spoke. "With Emperor Awesome. I really.... admired.... the skillful way you stood up for me when he was being a jerk."

"I was pretty great, wasn't I?" Hater agreed, grinning as he stared off into some middle distance and remembered the beat down he'd given Awesome. "Grop, he's so full of himself. It felt so good to just beat his a--eh?" Something flashed in his eye, and he glanced up. The grate had been removed, and Wander had braced himself in the opening. He pressed a finger to his lips as he returned the laser pointer to his hat, then pointed down at Peepers.

Hater followed his finger. Peepers wasn't looking at Hater, fortunately, or he would have seen him squinting up at the vent, but was instead intensely focused on the floor. His hands were curled tightly in the fabric of his bedspread. 

"I mean, um. I hated seeing him be so mean to you," Hater said. Peepers immediately perked up. "And, uh, you were really cool too. With... Sourdough. And that wasn't even that boring paper-pusher stuff you like so much."

"I don't like pushing papers, sir, but it's a necessary part of conquest."

"And you do it really well," Hater insisted. He glanced up again at Wander, who gave him two thumbs up. Compliments were good. What else could he compliment Peepers on? Wander pointed at his eye and fluttered his lashes. "And you have pretty eyes -- eye. I mean --"

"What?" Peepers sputtered, sclera coloring.

"Uh. You -- you're crazy," Hater continued, not bothering to answer, trying to figure out Wander's miming. "No, wait, smart."

"What are you looking at, sir?" Peepers asked, turning his eye to the vent. The opening was empty.

Peepers glared at it intensely, as though he knew (or at least heavily suspected) a certain orange someone was up there. The vent groaned and creaked. Wander and Sylvia held their breath as they clung to each other and prayed it would hold.

It didn't.

The vent collapsed, dumping the two of them and Tim the Lovable Watchdog onto Peepers's bed.

Wander bounced right up and dragged Peepers and Hater in for a hug while Sylvia stared at Tim, trying to figure out where he'd come from. Well, the vent, obviously, but had he been up there with the two of them? And they'd just never noticed? He looked between her and the others, who didn't seem to realize he was there. "I'll show myself out," Tim said as he circled the group hug.

"I'm so happy you two are hookin' up!" Wander said at a mile a minute. "You're so cute together. Ah, just thinka th' little tadpoles y'all'll have! Can I be their godparent? Oh, oh! Can I _officiate_ at th' weddin'? I got my license 'n' everythin' already."

Peepers was the first to break free, mostly because Hater was looking a little too starry-eyed at the prospect of marriage. "Do you have any idea how relationships even work, Wander? No, I know you don't because you tried to turn a death match into a meet-cute. We can't just get married. We aren't even 'hooking up'. We're just talking."

Wander and Hater were still hugging, and both seemed equally confused by Peepers's rant. "D' ya not... wanna be hooked up?" Wander asked hesitantly.

"I don't know. Yes? But it takes time. There are logistics. There's the fact that I'm his commander. If we were to openly -- "

Hater put a hand on Peepers's shoulder. "Peepers," he said solemnly. "I would kiss you now to shut you up, but I don't actually know how that works with your... face. But shut up. If any of your men have a problem with us, we can just jettison them out the airlock or something. Then they won't have a problem with us anymore."

"Aw, sir." Peepers's eye grew wet, and his lids curled into a smile. "You mean that?"

Wander was about to throw himself back into their touching moment, but Sylvia quickly caught him around the waist with her tail and pulled him from the room.

"I wanted to see them figure out how t' kiss," Wander whined as Sylvia set him on her back. She looked around the hall, but Tim was gone. That had been weird.

"You gotta let them work it out on their own," she said, repeating his own words back at him. "C'mon. You can annoy them for the details later."

"I guess."

Sylvia brought Wander back to the party, and he was soon distracted by helping Emperor Awesome who was sad-eating as much candy as possible and in some clear need of company. Just not Sylvia's.

Hater and Peepers didn't come back to the party at all that night. And eventually they did figure out how to kiss.


	2. Candy Kisses

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My spoopies are together 5ever. It was originally going to be spectral Skeleton Dance, but I like the idea of this planet doing jack-all to Hater because he's so oblivious. Prompt was #31: Trick or Treating
> 
> ETA: [efarukshina made fanart of this story!](http://storiesbybest.tumblr.com/post/153913214298/efarukshina-alright-lets-make-a-disaster) It's super cute, so you should all take a gander!

"We're handing out all our extra candy to subjugated planets to build good relations," Peepers explained as Hater shoved another handful of said candy into his mouth. A list of planets had been pulled up, ranked from shades of red to blue -- most likely to rebel to least. A few were grey. No data available. "This is the perfect time to show we care about our subjects, who are currently terrified that Lord Dominator will target them, and unload the way too much candy we ordered. Watchdogs have been crawling up the walls since the party, and I'm pretty sure at least two are in sugar comas."

"But it's my candy," Hater whinged, holding a bowl full of candy protectively to his chest. "And Captain Tim's been melting it into this really neat nest thing in my room. He needs his candy nest, Peepers."

"Captain Tim doesn't need a candy nest. He has enough nests throughout the ship."

"He's so cute in it, though. Look!" Hater pulled out his phone and began to flip through the rows and rows and rows of Captain Tim pictures intermingled with a few of Hater and Peepers. Peepers shoved the phone out of his face.

"We're giving it away, sir!"

"But I don't wanna! There's so much. It'll take foreveeeeer."

"Sir!" Peepers said, hands on his hips. Sometimes he felt more like a mother than a boyfriend _or_ second in command. But at least his new status seemed a little more on equal footing. "If you don't hand out at least one piece of candy, I am confiscating your phone. And you know what that means. No more pictures of Captain Tim for your tim-tim blog."

After going through the five stages of grief in the span of five seconds, Hater huffed and crossed his arms. "Fine, whatever."

"Thank you, sir. Now, for our plans to conquer even more planets..."

* * *

Hater sat by himself on the tongue of the Skullship, which lolled out into the empty void of space. Higher up, a sign that read "Trick or treaters welcome!" had been strung up. This was stupid. Nobody was going to come to _Lord Hater's_ ship looking for candy. This wasn't even the cool neighborhood where all the other villains had gathered to give out candy and aspirin. Mostly to each others' post-party minions as everyone stumbled back to their own ships, but still. This was where most of those red planets sat, and they didn't seem keen on getting candy from Hater. To add insult to injury, Hater had been forced to do it himself 'to give it that personal touch' or something while the rest of the Watchdogs prepped for their next phase of invasions, and Peepers assured him that he would check for a candy trail if Hater decided to just dump the candy out into space. Which had been his plan A.

With a sigh, Hater pulled one of the nicer candies out of his pocket and ate it as he tried to come up with a plan B.

Something poked his foot where it dangled off the edge of the tongue.

Hater looked down. "Wander?" he asked the sheet ghost standing there with a familiar hat on his head. "That costume sucks way more than your last one, which was already pretty bad. You looking for handouts or something?"

Wander took off his hat and held it out like a bag instead of answering.

"Um. Okay." Hater dropped a few pieces of candy into the hat.

Wander turned around and walked off. In space. Without a bubble.

Hater stared after him. That was weird.

* * *

Wander came back, later, and Hater gave him some more candy. This happened a second time. Then a third. He didn't know what game Wander was playing, but it was getting rid of his candy at least. It really _was_ weird, though. Maybe he should follow up on that instead of hand out candy to nobody. That sounded like a great idea.

After the fourth visit in which Hater just poured an entire box's worth of candy into Wander's hat, Hater crept up to the bridge of the Skullship and targeted Wander on the weapon's display. He carefully eased the ship forward, following him.

Either Wander was really oblivious or an idiot (or both), because he gave no indication that he knew the gigantic Skullship was following him.

Hater expected him to meet up with Sylvia, but instead Wander descended to a planet shrouded in a bile-colored haze. Hater could just make out a forest that covered most of the planet with black, creeping fingers of twisted branches. He checked the planet's status on Peepers's list. Grey. So he owned it, but it wasn't occupied. Where could Wander be taking his candy? Maybe he was working on a candy nest, too. Was that something Wanders did?

Hater teleported down in a crack of green lightning and stood on the edge of the spooky forest, scanning for Wander. He saw the white flash of Wander's sheet further in and trailed after him, careful to keep a distance.

Hater slowed as calliope music began to filter through the trees around him. He saw Sylvia's silhouette, Wander on her back, and quickly ducked behind a tree.

Wander was tossing candy to a collection of people who all looked kind of sallow and stiff as they did some weird jerky dance. Smiles were stitched across their faces that looked more like grimaces than grins. They each took a piece and faded away, until only Wander and Sylvia remained.

Wander slipped off of her back and offered her a piece. When she faded away, Hater swallowed both a gasp and his candy. He gagged, but managed not to cough and attract what he was beginning to suspect wasn't actually Wander's attention.

His suspicion was confirmed when Wander pulled off his costume to reveal the same, pained grin that stretched around his face. Wander, or whatever it was, dropped the sheet and reached into his hat. He came up with nothing and looked inside, then tilted it and shook it out. Weird chunks of something wet-sounding, nails, and broken glass fell out. The smile slipped into an even creepier frown.

Hater wasn't an idiot. He could guess what Wander was looking for. He teleported back to the bridge and just tilted the entire tongue's worth of candy onto the planet's surface. There. Creepy Wander, gone. Candy, gone. Holiday, which had been great until now, ruined. Trust Wander to manage that without even being there.

"Sir, why are we above the Wildwood?" Peepers asked, standing just at Hater's elbow.

Hater screamed and the ship lurched forward as he hit about five buttons by accident. "N-no reason."

"You wouldn't happen to be dumping the candy here, now would you?"

"Nooo, I was giving it to people. Like you told me to."

"Oh, really? Because this is a grey planet. Uninhabited. Resources only. Though nightmare fuel's not really something we've figured out how to use, yet."

"I'm serious, Peepers. Wander kept coming by the ship for candy -- the only person to come by the entire time, I might add -- and he was being weird, so I decided to follow him. To here. Where he was distributing candy to these even creepier people with wide --"

"-- Glowing eyes and spectral grins?" Peepers interrupted, rubbing his upper lid as though to relieve a tension headache. "Sir, those aren't people. They're emanations. Manifestations. _Ghosts_. The lore goes that the forest steals a bit of your soul, but most likely it's just a highly empathetic environment that imprints on people. Most respond with fear, which creates a feedback loop. In your case, your obsession with Wander probably created it."

"Yeah?" Hater turned around and pulled up the security footage of the Skullship's tongue from before he'd even gone to Wildwood. A sheet with no legs and no hat was floating around Hater. He paused and pointed. "Well spoopy Wander there wasn't near the forest when I first saw him. We were in the middle of space. Explain _that_."

"Spoopy Wander?"

"Yeah, like spooky, but not really. Because it's Wander. Wander is not scary," Hater said with a little more force than the assertion really required.

Peepers rewound the video even more and pressed play. A figure was moving just on the edge of the screen further into the ship, but his attention was arrested by the sheet approaching to poke Hater's foot. "I don't know how this... spoopy Wander could be there. There's never been any record of one of them leaving the forest. Its empathy field isn't large enough to sustain space-travel. So he returned to the forest?"

"Yeah. He was giving out the candy I gave him. I dumped the rest on the planet to keep him from coming back."

Peepers paused the video again. "That was a good idea, sir. There's no telling what this means, so we'll want to keep it contained until I can send some men to investigate. If it's possible to create ghosts that can leave the planet..." He began to mutter to himself as he planned, and Hater tuned him out to look at the planet below.

He didn't understand what spoopy Wander thought he was doing, but by the end he'd been completely by himself. Hater hoped that the candy had been enough to disappear him, too. A Wander by himself was a weird idea. Especially a silent, shrouded one that could walk through space like it was nothing. That was the last kind of Wander Hater needed.

* * *

The spectral Wander walked out of the forest as he dragged his sheet back on, ready to head back to that ship shaped like a skull for at least one more piece of candy before the season was over and he wouldn't feel safe to leave. The ship was a familiar, comfortable place, though, in a dreamlike way, since he had never seen it or the nice skeleton man living in it before.

He was about to start ascending out of the atmosphere when a crate crashed down just in front of him and exploded, pelting him with hard candies. Then another. And another. He stumbled back and tried to run back to the forest, but was blocked by more crates falling everywhere. As a last resort he yanked his hat down over himself until the barrage halted, and he found himself half-buried in candy vomited up from the ship.

The ship floated a little longer above the planet, then shot off into space. Wander looked around at his sudden cornucopia of treats, then pulled off his sheet and sank sadly into them. He'd already let everyone else dissipate into glimmers of thought and shadow. There wasn't anyone left to share the candy with.

Something rose out of the pile of candy, a person wearing black and red, with a big, single eye. He blinked a few times at Wander. The nice skeleton man hadn't given Wander  _just_ candy! What a great friend the skeleton man must be to his own original!

Tim the Lovable Watchdog screamed as Wander threw his arms around his new friend. They toppled into the sea of candy.


End file.
